Thursday's retirement announcement by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., marks not only the end of his personal legislative career but signals the waning ranks of Republicans who took over Washington in the historic 1994 wave election.

That year, Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in four decades, made Newt Gingrich a household name and changed the course of modern politics.

The mild-mannered Washington Republican was one of 73 Republicans who swept in to Washington that year. Today, only five lawmakers have served with Hastings continually from the 1994 class: Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey, Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, and Mac Thornberry of Texas.

Three more members of the class left or were defeated but returned in later elections and are serving again: Matt Salmon of Arizona, Steve Chabot of Ohio, and Steve Stockman of Texas.

Several members of the 1994 House class also went on to serve in the U.S. Senate, but only Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Roger Wicker of Oklahoma, Richard Burr of North Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina remain today. Chambliss and Coburn are also retiring this year, while Graham faces a primary challenge.

Only Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., remains of the eight Republicans elected to the Senate in 1994.

The 1994 class famously clashed with President Clinton, but also ushered in an era of surprising bipartisan legislative achievements on the budget and an overhaul of the welfare system.

Hastings was a quiet backbencher in a class renowned for colorful personalities, including onetime GOP presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Fred Thompson, and Joe Scarborough, now the host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

His low-key persona played a role in Hastings being tapped to serve as the top Republican on the House Ethics Committee, where he played a leading role in the 2002 expulsion of Rep. Jim Traficant, R-Ohio.

He was later caught in an ethical web of his own when Democrats accused him of using his perch on the committee to protect then House majority leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. The dispute hamstrung the panel, but Hastings was never accused of any wrongdoing and DeLay ultimately resigned from the House.

Hastings currently serves as the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee which holds little power inside the Beltway but was important back home in his vast, central Washington congressional district.

His seat is safe Republican territory, so his retirement doesn't shake up the 2014 landscape.

However, his departure serves as a reminder of how the Republican Party has shifted to the right. In 2009, before the 2010 Tea Party wave that again saw Republicans capture control of the House, Hastings was ranked by National Journal as the 72nd-most-conservative lawmaker in the House. In 2013, the same outfit ranked him as the 175th-most-conservative Republican.